Paddy Ashdown of Britain Is Seen by Some As Leading Candidate for Secretary-General : Hunt for NATO Chief Moves Into New Phase

By Joseph Fitchett

Published: July 15, 1999

PARIS—
The search by NATO for a new secretary-general was thrown open Wednesday when the German defense minister, Rudolf Scharping, was definitively ruled out by his government.

The elimination of Mr. Scharping raised the possibility that the next civilian head of the alliance could be Paddy Ashdown, the outgoing head of the Liberal Democrats in Britain. His appointment would put a centrist politician in the job at a juncture when London, Paris and Berlin are seeking to redefine the place of Europe in the Western alliance.

Mr. Ashdown, 58, has "more plus signs than any one else in contention and no killer negatives," according to a Clinton administration official dealing with the question of a successor for NATO's secretary-general, Javier Solana, who hopes to leave the alliance post in October to become the high representative for security coordination in the European Union.

London was apparently reluctant to challenge any bid for the NATO job by Mr. Scharping, the candidate preferred by many alliance members. Mr. Scharping has been a powerful voice in persuading Germans to break new ground in contributing forces to NATO's Kosovo intervention. Now he seems to have become indispensable as an advocate of radical German military modernization in the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Mr. Schroeder said Wednesday that Mr. Scharping was not available for the NATO job. "The situation has not changed in Germany. As far as I know Scharping has not changed his mind and I haven't mine," Mr. Schroeder said in a news conference in Bonn.

Mr. Scharping, while making no secret that he preferred to stay in Germany as a player in the Social Democratic Party, had pointedly left it up to Mr. Schroeder to decide whether or not he took the Brussels job.

In putting the onus on Mr. Schroeder, diplomats said, Mr. Scharping may have succeeded in extracting some secret pledges for future protection of Germany's defense budget, a contentious issue lately.

The NATO alliance as a whole has much to gain from seeing Mr. Scharping remain the German government, diplomats said, explaining that he is probably the most effective possible advocate of German alignment with Britain and France in creating modern forces designed to project military power beyond Europe's periphery.

The challenge of creating a strong European force to cope with future Kosovo-type crisis also confronts NATO. A secretary-general who was British — and therefore not liable to be suspected to trying to create a European rival to the alliance — could facilitate some trans-Atlantic adjustments in burden-sharing and other contentious issues dividing Europeans and Americans.

To avoid friction stemming from speculation about the alliance's top civilian post, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization wants to fill the job in the coming weeks. Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain has already backed Mr. Ashdown in bids for several top administrative posts in the Balkans.

While he lacks the experience of being a cabinet minister, which is considered proof of the political experience and clout needed to run the alliance, Mr. Ashdown has strong credentials as an early and ardent supporter of NATO's intervention in Kosovo and as a man with a strong record of success in mobilizing public support for his views.

Adding to his appeal as a NATO leader, Mr. Ashdown carries the stamp of military experience as a commando in the Royal Marines and commander in an elite British force, the Special Boat Service, between 1959 and 1971.

Other frequently mentioned candidates for the NATO job seem to have fallen by the wayside. Belgium's Jean-Luc Dehaene, a former Belgian prime minister, is completely unacceptable to Washington, U.S. officials said.

NATO would not want to offend Russia by taking its new leader from one of the three new member states — Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Another mentioned candidate, Defense Minister Haekkerup of Denmark, faces a French veto. Paris resents Danish reluctance to envisage closer defense cooperation in the EU.

Mr. Ashdown, who wants to protect NATO as the matrix of European security and the guarantor of United States engagement in Europe, also supports the ideas of Mr. Blair — and the French government — of a stronger defense effort by the EU in conjunction with NATO.